Morrison, M., Marschark, M., Sarchet, T., Convertino, C., Borgna, G., & Dirmyer, R. (in press). Deaf students' metacognitive awareness in reading and the classroom. European Journal of Special Needs Education.

Well the issue of reading is a global problem for Deaf people. Being a teacher in an integrated school, I also observed the same problem among Deaf students. I think the problem lies from home where they are prepared poorly before they enter school. There are potential solutions for this but can be possible only where Central government is committed to channeling resources to Deaf schools....

Hello, everybody!

I am a pedagogue. I've been teaching English and French for about 20 years.

I'd like to share my story with a hearing disabled student.

She lost totally hearing when she was 10. Her mother was very wise and nothing had been changed in her school routine. Very difficult for that brave girl!

When we met she was 24 and I hadn't been prepared for this type of class and asked her to direct me. She was a student for me, not a deaf student.

She was speaking French in one and half year. Still today she says she doesn' t know how that happened.

I'm so proud of her! She writes an excellent blog. She has been filmed by a French filmmaker. She gives interviews, speeches, and help a lot of disabled with her experience of life.

Take a look at her blog.

She also speaks English and Spanish.

She has been implanted a couple of years ago.

Her last great achievement was giving an interview by phone.

http://desculpenaoouvi.laklobato.com/

I am so happy for your student. We know that the situation of "post-lingual" deafness is very different. She was so fortunate to have 10 years to listen to langauge, speech and to acquire grammar. Getting a CI was most likely helpful in that she had "auditory memory" to map sound onto....we also know that the shorter time an auditory nerve is left without stimulation, the more likely it is that a positive result will occur. She must obviously be very bright to have done so well.

Linda Spencer, thank you!

When someone says "I've lost my life, my work..." because a disability, she answers: "Start a new one!"

She said she's already had three lives: the first one when she could hear; the second one as a hearing disabled person; the third one with the CI.

She's a great fan of the CI. With it she could recognise her parents' voices, a popular Brazilian song "Eduardo e Mônica"... And yet, when she shares all her experiences, she spreads love and hapiness. I get very touched and often cry (the 'good' cry) about her achievements.

I am luck to be a teacher of so many special people. I learn a lot with my students. That's the secret of happiness I think. (LOL) I love studying and learning!

By the way, her husband's name is Eduardo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fCDnDQo88

Crisaidi Bento Sodré ,So nice and inspiring to read the story of your student.

As Linda Spencer commented, 'post lingual' situation is different.

Early intervention plays the major role in the education of hearing disability population.

But unfortunately, most of the students joining our undergraduate course is not getting early intervention.

To Raji and to Linda:

I'm really lay about how to teach hearing disabled people... I read and ask my students to help and direct me.

Lakshmi, my first hearing disabled student (of two! till now!) couldn't hear for 24 years! Does it count? She has lost her hearing at 10.

How many years can you keep memories of sounds?

To Juventus:

I think that is not 'only' with hearing disable students... (about difficulty in learning)

Considering that 80% of all synapses created from 2 to 6 years old will base our school/cognition activities, anyone who couldn't get a good and stimulating environment at this period of life will face difficulties at school, even at university.

I have taught at a very important university here in São Paulo City for almost ten years. I used to teach French at a prep course for proficience exam, especially to Master and Doctor degree students. And I have had hard-working engaged students with poor results. Most of them didn't have the expected good stimulus at their early childhood.

"A educação infantil é a base de tudo. Quem explica é a neurociência. Na década de 90, os pesquisadores do cérebro descobriram que os primeiros anos de vida são os mais importantes para seu desenvolvimento. É quando ocorre a maior parte das ligações entre células cerebrais, as sinapses. Elas são responsáveis pela capacidade de aprendizagem, entendimento e comunicação. É como se, entre os 2 anos e os 6 anos, o cérebro estivesse experimentando as ferramentas que vai usar para o resto da vida. A infância é a fase em que há a maior densidade dessas ligações. Depois, com o passar dos anos, o cérebro vai descartando aquelas que não usa. "Aos 4 anos, 80% de todas as nossas sinapses estão formadas", diz o pedagogo Vital Didonet, consultor de educação infantil. "As crianças que ficam em casa ou em uma creche ruim podem ter seu desenvolvimento prejudicado. Se não desenvolvem a linguagem, terão dificuldade em se expressar e a alfabetização será mais difícil." Será uma boa idéia deixar 12 milhões de crianças esperar o aniversário de 7 anos para ganhar uma matrícula?"

Last paragraph from:

http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Revista/Epoca/0,,EDR76580-6014,00.html

I have not worked with deaf students but I have a question. When deaf students sign, especially at home or with close friends, do they sign each and every adjective, article and preposition? Doesn't signing itself focus on the main words and ideas?

To Theresa Tredwell

In sign langiage, adjectives, articles and propositions are omitted. I must admit that it is true that Sign Language (SL) is like all other languages. But as language keep changing, so does the SL too change. Most SL are more word focus than others. Though there are variety of SLs in he world, such as the Sign Exact English.....some educators encourage the one which is words focus. But it depends on whom you the speaker speaks to. As a post-lingual Deaf myself, I mostly use the words focus SL when communicating with a pre-lingual Deaf person. But when I sign to a Hearing person or my interpreter, I normally include every proposition. THis becomes further necessary when the interpreter needs to voice for me.

To Theresa. In American Sign Language (which is a naturally-developed sign language), adjectives, adverbs and other such meanings are expressed either by signs or by special signs called "classifiers." The meanings of articles and prepositions and the like are represented by movements, facial expressions, and other special devices---but in a way different from that used in spoken languages. The sign language is as complete and complex as spoken language but it has a different kind of grammatical structure....one that makes best use of visual processing. In contrast, artificially-developed sign systems (like Signed English) include separate signs that match up with spoken words and grammatical morphemes used in spoken English. Unfortunately, most users of this kind of artificial language tend to omit all of the smaller units of ;grammar, etc., when they sign. Although it's not impossible to sign all these units, it tends to be slow....it's not easy to transfer the structure of a language that is based on speech/sound to a visual/manual modality. So this is a signed language approach that tends to be shown to children in incomplete form. If you are interested in more descriptions of the characteristics of natural sign languages versus artificially-created sign systems, you might see M. Marschark's book Raising and Educating Deaf Children, or P. Spencer & Marschark, Evidence-Based Practice in Educating Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students. Also, Holcomb has a wonderful book on Deaf Culture that gives some simpler examples and discussion of sign language. All these books are published by Oxford University Press. I hope this is helpful.

To Ms Spencer,As you said the in ASL /ISL articles and prepositions are represented by movements, facial expressions etc, won't they get confused in written language? In India, written English of hearing impaired students is very poor as they avoid these prepositions, articles etc.This leads to many difficulties in their professional life .

I wish there were a simple answer to your question. he grammatical small words and parts of words (like tenses, articles, etc.) are harder to hear---and either are expressed in a different way (as in ASL) or most often omitted from systems like Signed English. In general, children in the U.S. who learn ASL learn English grammar using a "second language" approach. The idea is that it is best to learn a first language, even if it is visual/manual instead of auditory/oral, in the early years than to learn the "spoken" language incompletely. The first language can then be used as the language in instructional situations to teach subjects like English. One advantage of successful use of cochlear implants is that a child can then combine auditory input, or at least partial input, with some signs....often the Signed English approach instead of ASL. There doesn't seem to be an one "best" approach overall---but the results depend on the child's ability (hearing ability and cognitive and social abilities) as well as the family's ability to provide a fluent model of whatever language approach is being used. Of course, starting intervention/education very early in life really, really helps....

To Ms Spencer,Thank you for the reply.It helps.Currently I am teaching deaf undergraduate computer students.In Computer Science education ,logical thinking and critical thinking plays a vital role. We are studying the effect of early intervention in the development of logical thinking and reasoning skills.We have students who do not have early intervention and with early intervention.

Please share share your view about this.

Dear Raji nr

For the deaf child, as of the hearing child , the full development of their language , emotional and social skills is a prerequisite for their development as a person .

But the same does not happen with a percentage of deaf people whose primary language is sign language used , so for them the knowledge of writing involves learning a new language . School success depends in large part on the field of language education . Furthermore, the written language is the mode of communication more easily shareable by deaf and hearing .

How to teach the deaf signaled to read ?

A child with good command of sign language have an advantage when it comes to school .

A) Discovery of letters

Begin by creating the notion that :

Ex. Different names start with different letters ;

These notions can be created with aids such as computer, drawings , books , among others that the teacher deems useful for the particular case in question .

B )Discovery of the nature of written language

In order that the child will internalize writing some routines must be created in order that serious child the following notions :

writing has information that is intended to be read ;

So it is good that the teacher start by reading stories to children , with subsequent translation into sign language . After reading should be discussed it read.

C )Discovery of the existence of words

The educator must develop activities to teach and encourage the child to :

1. recognize units graphic strings ( words) ;

2 . realize that words have meaning;

3 . realize that words are isolated in the text by spaces ;

4 . know where it begins and where it ends the word ;

5 . know that the same words have the same meaning and gesture ( sign) .

Learning of reading comprehension [

Reading is a cognitive activity , your target is to obtain meaning.

The structure of the texts , whatever their purpose ( to inform , entertain , persuade the reader ) has to do with how the ideas are organized , for the sake of clarity of the content Therefore , for different types of text, different approaches will be needed .